| Hadad-yith'i Bilingual Inscription | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Material | Basalt |
| Writing | Akkadian and Aramaic |
| Created | 9th century BC |
| Discovered | 1979 |
| Present location | National Museum of Damascus |
The Hadad-yith'i bilingual inscription, also known as the Tell el Fakhariya Bilingual Inscription is a bilingual inscription found on a Neo-Assyrian statue of Adad-it'i/Hadd-yith'i, the king of Guzana and Sikan, which was discovered at Tell Fekheriye in Syria in the late 1970s. The inscriptions are in the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian and Aramaic, the earliest Aramaic inscription.[1][2] The statue, a standing figure wearing a tunic, is made of basalt and is 2 meters tall including the base. The two inscriptions are on the skirt of the tunic, with the Akkadian inscription (38 lines) on the front and the Aramaic inscription (23 lines) on the back. The text is most likely based on an Aramaic prototype.[3] It is the earliest known Aramaic inscription,[4] and is known as KAI 309.
The statue was inscribed as a votive object to Hadad, whose name the donor bore. It is generally dated to around 850 BC, though an 11th-century BC date has also been proposed.[5]